[Survey Results and Recommendations] Over 80% of Municipalities Implement 'Child Advocacy' Programs, Yet 'Quality Disparity' Due to Lack of Supervisors (SV) Becomes Clearer — National Council for Child Advocacy Recommends Standardization of SV Budget with National Funds

NPO National Council for Child Advocacy (Location: Jonan-ku, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture; Chairpersons: Hitoshi Aizawa, Midori Nakamura), in cooperation with Oita University's Center for Research and Education on Rights Protection, announced the results of its 2025 national survey (published March 2026) on "Child Opinion Expression Support (Child Advocacy) Programs." The number of implementing municipalities reached 82.9% of all targets, indicating the spread of the system. However, the placement of supervisors (SVR) who support advocates (opinion expression support workers) remained at 60%, leading to a serious regional disparity in the quality of support. The Council takes these survey results seriously and proposes "standardization of the SV system through national funds" and other recommendations, the details of which are now public.

### Our Recommendations (Full Text)

The Council aims to create a society where all children, regardless of where they live, can receive high-quality advocacy. Based on the on-site issues revealed by this survey, we propose the following three items:

1. **Standardization and Obligation of National Subsidies for Supervision (SV) Expenses**
To ensure the professionalism and safety of advocates, the establishment of an SV system should not be left solely to the efforts of local governments but should be fully subsidized as a standard public budget.

2. **Expansion of Adjustment Budget for Deployment to Family-Based Care (Foster Parents, Family Homes)**
To promote advocacy for foster families and similar settings, which require advanced coordination efforts different from facility visits, not only actual expenses but also "coordination personnel costs" should be appropriately calculated.

3. **Formulation of Appropriate Remuneration Standards for the Professionalization of Advocates**
The nation should present appropriate remuneration standards that fairly evaluate "invisible labor" such as travel, record-keeping, and training, without disparities based on profession or region.

### Survey Overview

* **Purpose**
To clarify the implementation status of the Opinion Expression Support Program (Article 6-3, Paragraph 17 of the Child Welfare Act) and the overview of municipalities implementing the program, and to provide basic data for future program promotion.

* **Target**
82 municipalities with child consultation centers. For this survey, requests were made to municipalities if they conducted the survey independently or commissioned individuals, and through municipalities to private organizations if commissioned to them. The affiliation and position of respondents were business managers (section chief level to clerk, etc.) in child and family support departments for municipalities, and representatives or business managers for private organizations, NPOs, corporations, and universities.

* **Method**
Responses via Google Forms or PDF submission by email.

* **Period**
November 2025 to February 2026.

* **Response Rate**
84.1% (69 out of 82 municipalities).

* **Implementing Body**
NPO National Council for Child Advocacy.

* **Analysis Method and Considerations**
Statistical analysis was primarily descriptive statistics using Microsoft Excel. Furthermore, this survey is based on self-reported data from responding municipalities and commissioned organizations, and includes non-responses and variations in descriptions, so interpretation of the results requires certain considerations.

### 2025 Survey Results

### ■Key Points of Survey Results

Keywords: Child Advocacy, Children, Children's Rights, Opinion Expression Support Program, Child Welfare, Social Care, Advocate, Rights Protection, National Survey, Recommendations